Currently Viewing: South Sudan

Total number of South Sudan refugees as of April 6th, 2018: 1,053,598 people.

See the film above. IAS is on ground – responding to the South Sudan refugee crisis – together with other sister agencies, and the challenge is huge since there isn’t sufficient funds to take care of this immense catastrophe.(Photo: Andreas Zetterlund – Edit: Håkan Björk)

Since December 2013, the conflict in South Sudan has devastated the lives of millions of South Sudanese and displaced more than 2.2 million people. IAS is on ground in Northern Bahr el Ghazal implementing a large development project on Life changing food security, water and community development. So far 23 000 have been reached but the goal is to help 25 000 people.

Over 90% of the people in South Sudan are engulfed in extreme poverty and major humanitarian consequences are widespread ; high rates of death, disease, and injuries, severe food insecurity, disrupted livelihoods and a major malnutrition crisis.

Rural communities in Northern Bahr el Ghazal are particularly vulnerable when it comes to food and water insecurity. Here is IAS helping people to grow food crops like sorghum, groundnuts and sesam.

-We want the communities to lead their own development process and therefore we train farmers on modern food production techniques.Farmers are trained on principles and practices in crop food production, post-harvest handling and storage of cereals and grain legumes, says Zaitun Ragota, Programme Manager IAS South Sudan.

-This training is very important because it equips the beneficiaries with knowledge that help in preventing or minimizing post-harvest crop losses, says Zaitun.

Improving hygiene and sanitation

Another component of the project is Water, Sanitaton and Hygiene (WASH) which includes new boreholes and construction of mini water yards. Each community who receives water are also educated in two levels of training. The first level is in hygiene and sanitation practices.

-Northern Bahr el Ghazal has a long history of communities practicing open defecation in respect to their cultural norms and beliefs. This results in bad sanitation and that diseases are spread. However, training in hygiene and sanitation has been very effective in changing the mindset of the communities, says Zaitun.

IAS has so far drilled 11 new boreholes, rehabilitated 20 broken boreholes, constructed 3 new mini water yards and constructed latrines in three schools.

Promote girls education

The second level of training is on common cross cutting issues which includes gender, early marriages, child protection, HIV/AIDS and girls education.

-Through trainings on cross cutting issues IAS creates awareness on the dangers of early marriages and through girls activities we advocate for girls to remain in school. An important aspect of this is access to water. Girls are the prime water collectors for the families and often have to walk many hours every day to collect water which gives them no time to attend school. But by reducing the walking distance to the water points girls return to school and finish their education.

Women, men and children are all very positive and excited to IAS interventions, says Zaitun.

-All have been actively involved in the implementation of this project and share the feeling of owning it together.

The heat was overwhelming but the joy even greater. In a colourful ceremony the 25 Years celebration was held together with a number of activities. Musicians were performing and both IAS staff and its local partners held several speeches. One of them was Unicef , who has been a close partner to IAS since 15 years in Tchad, Somalia,, in Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan.

– On behalf of Unicef I want to congratulate IAS for reaching this remarkable milestone. IAS has been one of our closest old friends and is a reliable partner. We have enjoyed and are still enjoying working with IAS, said Rose Tawil, Unicef Juba, Wash Specialist.

New leadership taking on

Since beginning of this year Daniel Zetterlund has been taking on the new role as CEO, after IAS founder, Leif Zetterlund.

– The vision that inspired us 25 years ago is vibrant today. Now it´s time for us to take a step back and let the new young generation take over, Leif said in a speech.

He used a key as an illustration that he handed over to Daniel.

– This key will remind you about two things: to open doors and to close doors,. There are always situations where you must say no. But you should open doors that lead people to prosperity, to proper education and that gives people opportunities. We dreamed about transformed communities and we want to you to continue dreaming.

Daniel also held a speech where he highlighted that IAS, thanks to its founders, is resting on a solid foundation and that it will continue to move forward.

– There are three words that drove IAS in the beginning; Need, Injustice and that no one is responding to the call of the population. IAS was one of the first registered NGO:s in Yei and the first organisation here working with local staff. This foundational drive and the same commitment remains today and will continue to remain in the future.

The peak season for malaria this year has been unusually long in South Sudan, says IAS staff in Nyinbuli who are concerned that the incidence rate has been increasing year after year. – Children under five and pregnant women are the largest groups at risk, says Emmanuel Baraza, nurse at a health center supported by IAS in Nyinbuli, where IAS specifically work to treat and prevent malaria.

– The peak season for malaria is usually in July, August and September. This year however, high malaria cases has been seen into late October. It is worrying that the number of malaria cases seem to be increasing, says Emmanuel.

Women and children worst affected

Nyinbuli in Bahr El Ghazal is one of the most vulnerable areas when it comes to malaria and the disease has continued to be an endemic condition here despite efforts to curb its spread. The most vulnerable groups are children under five and pregnant women.
– For pregnant women we have a special antenatal care program, since the treatment options are limited. We also distribute Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets to children, men and women, says Emmanuel.

Creating awareness about malaria

– We have also created awareness in the local community. One of the things is to inform people that they need to seek health care as soon as symptoms appear. This is a challenge as many confuse malaria with ‘’Gargan’’-a local name for yellow fever which presents itself almost the same as malaria, says Emmanuel.
Some are also seeking medical help from local healers and only go to the health centers when the symptoms have become so severe that it is often too late. This has largely contributed to the increase of the mortality rate of malaria.

– IAS continually provides services here and we remain the only hope to the local community when it comes to health care provision, says Emmanuel.

Two schools, the Mosaik freeschool and Söderbaumska school, Falun Sweden, have together collected 65 000 SEK through the Swedish campaign Operation Dagsverke. For every SEK collected SIDA will tenfold, meaning almost 700 000 SEK will go directly to one of IAS project in South Sudan, a project which aims to reduce poverty for 10 000 people.

–Our school has for a long time been involved in Operation Dagsverke which means that students are helping other students, says Carolina Sundin, principal Mosaik freeschool.

Students from age 10 to 15 has been working for a day with different things to collect the money, some has been working for companies and others has been helping out at home.

– Some of our students also arranged a charity concert in Lugnetkyrkan and stood with collection boxes. Around 50 students from both schools were performing and even SVT reported from the gala, says Carolina.

Writing love letters

The younger students has been writing love letters which will be sent to the children and their families in the project. The love letters includes a greeting and some small gifts like a toothbrush, toothpaste, pencils etc.

-The response from the students are very positive. This is a day when they do something for someone else and they can see that their work gives result.

SIDA adds up ten times

–We have been using Operation Dagsverke for a long time in our school and this year we wanted to give our money to IAS. It´s an organization I know well and I know that their projects are well anchored among the people on ground, says Carolina.

For every SEK collected SIDA will tenfold, meaning almost 700 000 SEK will go to IAS project in Bahr el Ghasal in South Sudan. The goal of the project is to reduce poverty, helping 20 villages including 10 000 people with strengthening their societies and to involve them in their development process.

– We are very gratetful for this gift which we know will reduce poverty for a lot of people, says Andreas Zetterlund, country director IAS.

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IAS is one of the Founding members of the CHS Alliance. The CHS Alliance leads and facilitates the development, promotion and maintenance of the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability CHS). The CHS sets out Nine Commitments that organisations and individuals involved in humanitarian response can use to improve the quality and effectiveness of the assistance they provide. More information can be found on www.chsalliance.org